Hannibal loses safe 'hometown' feel

In Mark Twain's hometown, crime hits new highs.

In Mark Twain's hometown, crime hits new highs.

December 14, 2005

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) -- Apart from some murder and grave-robbing in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," Mark Twain immortalized his hometown of Hannibal as a sleepy place where life rolls by as slowly as a barge going down the Mississippi. But that's pure fiction nowadays. Drugs and a lack of jobs have brought a boom in armed robbery and theft to this community of 18,000 that calls itself "America's Hometown." Robberies per year nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2004 to 26, and they are running at about the same level this year as they were in 2004, according to the police department. With a robbery occurring about every other week, store clerks like Bonnie Robbins have come to accept the danger as one more occupational hazard. "Around here, jobs are scarce," said Robbins, who was held up in May while on the night shift at the Mark Twain Amoco on Mark Twain Avenue. While Hannibal averages only one murder per year, last year the FBI counted 190 burglaries and 1,227 cases of larceny (meaning nonviolent theft, such as shoplifting) in Hannibal, for a property crime rate 56 percent higher than the national average, according to Morgan Quitno Press, which analyzes crime statistics for U.S. cities. Most of the crime is blamed on people looking for money for drugs -- namely methamphetamine, which has become a major scourge across Missouri, and crack, which arrives from big cities like St. Louis and Kansas City. About 11 percent of families in Hannibal live below the poverty line, compared with 9.2 percent nationwide and 8.6 percent in Missouri, according to the Census Bureau.